Mail-bag crane.



P. HANSON & s. MATNEY.

MAIL BAG CRANE. APPLICATION FILED SEPT,19,1910

Patented Dec. 6, 1910.

PAUL HANSON AND SOLLIE MATNEY, OF ROCKFORD, WASHINGTON.

MAIL-BAG CRANE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 6, 1910.

Application filed September 19, 1910. Serial No. 582,795.

T 0 all whom it may concern.

Be it known that we, PAUL Henson and SoLLIn MATNEY, citizens of the United States, residing at Rockford, in the county of Spokane and State of lVashington, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Mail-Bag Cranes; and we do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to mail bag cranes and has special reference to improvements on the crane shown in Letters-Patent No. 9a6,74.1, granted to us January 18, 1910.

One object of the invention is to provide a mail bag crane having adjustable bag holding arms and means whereby the arms may be raised and lowered to inoperative and operative positions for supporting a mail bag in position to be taken by the bag catching mechanism of a passing train.

Another object is to provide a crane of this character, the bag supporting arms of which are pivotally supported on the standards of the crane and yieldingly held in position so that should said arms be struck by a person or object on a moving train, the arms will swing laterally and thus lessen the danger of injuring the person struck, and preventing the arms from being thereby bent or broken.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, the invention consists of certain novel features of construction, combination and arrangement of parts as will be more fully described and particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings: Figure 1 is a side view of a mail bag crane constructed in accordance with the invention showing the parts in operative position; Fig. 2 is a sectional front elevation on the line 22 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a horizontal sectional view on the line 33 of Fig. 1; Fig. 4 is a rear view of a portion of the standard and arm operating chain of the crane.

Referring more particularly to the drawings 1 denotes the standard of our improved crane. The standard 1 may be in the form of two channel iron bars suitably connected together or as shown in the drawings the standard may be formed of a channel iron bar having formed in its front side a longitudinally extending guide passage or slot 2. The lower end of the bar is divided for a suitable distance and said divided ends are spread apart to form supporting legs 3, the lower ends of which are bolted or otherwise secured to a base plate 4 which in turn is adapted to be secured to the projecting ends of two of the railway ties or to any other suitable support. The standard is braced at its lower end by inclined brace bars 5 which, together with the legs 3 firmly support the standard in operative position.

Slidably mounted in the standard is a bag supporting carriage comprising a plate or bar 6 having on its upper and lower ends forwardly projecting lugs 7 in which are pivotally mounted the upper and lower ends of a bag holder supporting shaft 8. Connected to the upper end of the carriage plate or bar 6 is a raising and lowering chain 9. Said chain extends upwardly to the upper end of the standard and passes around a guide pulley 10 revolubly mounted in said upper end of the standard, and from said pulley the chain passes downwardly along the rear side of the standard and is connected with a carriage holding bail or loop 11, the ends of which are pivotally mounted in apertured bearing lugs 12 formed on the rear edges of the standard as shown. The lower end of the chain is extended a short distance beyond the connection thereof with the bail and on said extended end of the chain is secured a handle 13 whereby the bail may be swung downwardly and the chain operated to raise the carriage to an elevated out of the way position when not in use. By thus arranging the bail 11, the same, when swung downwardly for the purpose of raising the carriage will, when the loop or end to which the chain is connected is swung past the pivotal connection of its opposite end become locked against the upward pull of the chain, thereby supporting the carriage to an elevated position the distance of which above the operative position of the carriage corresponds to the length of the bail or loop 11 as will be readily understood.

Fixidly secured to the shaft 8 adjacent to and engaging the upper surfaces of the ears or lugs 7 are pivot lugs 14: to the outer ends of which are pivotally connected upper and lower bag supporting arms 15 and 16 which when in an operative position project outwardly in a horizontal position as shown in Fig. 1 of the dra ing. Pivotally connected at its upper end to the arm 15 is an inclined brace bar 17 the lower end of which is bifurcated as shown at 18 and has a sliding engagement with the lower arm 16, Vhen the arms 15 and 16 are swung upwardly to operative positions for supporting the bag the lower bifurcated end of the brace bar 17 will be brought into engagement with the right angular stop plate 19 secured to the upper side of the lower arm adjacent its hinge connection with the lower pivot lug 14 When thus arranged the opposite ends of the mail bag are connected to the opposite ends of the arms 15 and 16 and when so connected the brace bar 17 by its engagement with the lower arm and stop plate, will support the upper arm, while the upper arm in turn will support the lower arm through the medium of the mail bag.

On the shaft 8 is arranged a coiled spring 20 which is secured between its ends to the shaft and has its upper and lower ends projecting laterally in opposite directions and engaged with the outer surface of the standard whereby the shaft is yieldingly held against rotation and the arms yieldingly held out in operative position so that should a person or object on a moving train strike the arms, the latter will be swung around against the tension of the spring 20 and injury avoided.

On the outer ends of the arms 15 and 16 are secured spring bag engaging hooks 21 formed on the end of spring wire shanks 22 which are bent to form horizontally disposed spring coils 23 which provide a flexible or resilient connection for the bag holding hooks 21 whereby when the bag is taken by the catching mechanism of a moving train, the hooks will give or yield to a sutlicient extentto permit the bag to be readily drawn from the same thereby preventing all danger of the supporting hooks being broken when the bag is jerked therefrom.

From the foregoing description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, the construction and operation of the invention will be readily understood without requiring a more extended explanation.

Various changes in the form, proportion and the minor details of construction may be resorted to without departing from the principle or sacrificing any of the advantages of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Having thus described'our invention what we claim is:

l. A mail bag crane comprising a rigid standard, a carriage slidably mounted thereon, means for raising and lowering the carriage, a rotary shaft mounted in the ends of the carriage and disposed at one side of and parallel with the standard, bag support ing arms carried by said shaft, and a spring coiled around and secured to said shaft and having its ends engaging the side of the standard.

2. In a mail bag crane, a supporting standard, a carriage slidably mounted therein, a raising and lowering chain connected with said carriage whereby the latter may be raised to an out of the way position when not in use, means to lock the chain whereby the carriage is held in a raised position, a bag supporting shaft pivotally mounted on said carriage, bag holding arms hingedly connected to the upper and lower ends of said shaft, means to supportsaid arms in operative position when a bag is engaged therewith, and a coiled spring arranged on said shaft, said spring having its opposite ends engaged with the standard whereby the bag supporting arms are yieldingly held in operative position to support the bag.

3. In a mailbag crane, a supporting standard, a bag supporting carriage slidably mounted therein, a bag supporting shaft revolubly mounted on said carriage, bag supporting arms hingedly connected to said shaft and adapted to support the bag when engaged therewith, a spring to yieldingly hold said bag supporting arms in operative position, bag engaging hooks arranged on the outer end of said arm, said hooks having shanks bent to form horizontally disposed spring coils whereby the hooks are held in yielding position to engage and support a In testimony whereof we have hereunto set our hands in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

PAUL HANSON. SOLLIE hilATNEY. Witnesses D. D. VVATSON, H. O. WVA'rsoN. 

